Worldview Unit Quiz

Theology - John Feaks

Worldview

a series of presuppositions of which all experience is interpreted and related.

3 major divisions of worldview

Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics

Explain Metaphysics (3 major divisions)

reality; does God exist?

Explain Epistemology (3 major divisions)

knowledge; what is it and how can it be acquired

Explain Ethics (3 major divisions)

morality; account for praiseworthiness/blameworthiness

Metaphysics (Christian View)

God exists, eternal, unchanging and un-created; He brought the changing physical world into being

Epistemology (Christian View)

God created to the world with intelligibility; God is responsible for our rational and cognitive faculties; these things are revealed to us in the Bible

Ethics (Christian View)

God’s character is the standard of moral goodness made apparent through his divine commands.

2 Perspectives (Epistemology)

Objective Observer and Active Participant

Objective Observer (Epistemology Perspective)

must be detached from object of study.

Active Observer (Epistemology Perspective)

must be connected to the object of study

Rationalism (Epistemology)

certainty comes through reason; it claims that senses deceive us

Rationalism Problems (Epistemology)

1. Human minds are limited and prone to error;

2. Who determines the standard for right reason?;

3. leads to arbitrariness

Empiricism (Epistemology)

All knowledge through the 5 senses; limited, error-prone minds

Empiricism Problems (Epistemology)

1. empiricism itself is not known through the senses;

2. must have knowledge of what to do with sense data;

3. leads to skepticism

Commonsense Foundationalism (Epistemology)

knowledge is based on publicly accessible, compulsively held beliefs

Commonsense Foundationalism Problems (Epistemology)

1. incorrigibility does not equal infallibility; 2) commonsense beliefs are not that common!)

Perceptual Foundationalism (Epistemology)

sincere, first person, present tense perceptual (ongoing) experience)

Perceptual Foundationalism Problems (Epistemology)

1. P.F. is a universal proposition; it cannot be known to be true (no individual perception is universal in nature)

2. How to reason outward?

Mathematical Knowledge (Epistemology)

Math and number are self-evident and unchanging; they hold the truth.

Mathematical Knowledge Problems (Epistemology)

1. number are abstract and non-material in nature; 2) monism – all is One, math is impossible 3) where does math come from? 4) there is no moral dimension to math

Intuitionism (Dualistic) (Epistemology)

intuit the “forms”

Intuitionism (Dualistic) problems (Epistemology)

1. problem of bringing the two worlds together persists.

Immanual Kant’s Philosophy (Epistemology)

the actual world—the noumenal world—is completely un-knowable; all we know is the world as it appears to us—the phenomenal world)

Immanual Kant’s Philosophy problems (Epistemology)

1. self-refuting (Kant describes the world as it is!) 2) makes chance ultimate 3) we still know nothing.

Inductive reasoning

drawing a general conclusion from specific instances; the more confirmed instances, the stronger the conclusion becomes

Deductive reasoning

if the premises of an argument are true, then the conclusion is true

Problem of induction

• assumes that the future will always resemble the past;

• our observation might be wrong making the assumption wrong;

Christian type of dualism

biblical dualism (God and the earth - creator and creation)